Tennessee, Pruitt losing 'in demand' Fitzgerald to the New York Giants

Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt is looking for a new strength coach as Craig Fitzgerald is returning to the NFL with the New York Giants.

At the start of the now cancelled spring practice, Pruitt praised the work of Fitzgerald and his staff.

“I can’t say enough about Craig and his guys, what they’ve done over the last three years,” Pruitt said. “Our guys continue to get bigger and stronger and develop discipline and to me a lot of mental toughness in the offseason.”

Pruitt also noted then that his strength coach was in high demand and keeping him from joining the Maryland a year ago and the Alabama staff was a big win.

“I think Craig’s a guy that’s in high demand,” Pruitt offered. “It’s no secret that there have been several jobs that have been open across our league in the last couple of weeks and Craig was the first guy that they called. He decided to stay here. He’s in demand because he’s good at what he does.”

That demand prompted an opportunity with the New York Giants that Fitzgerald apparently could not pass up.

Fitzgerald’s departure continues a bad trend, as no Tennessee football player has had the same strength coach for their entire four-year career since 2005-2008 when Johnny Long was Phillip Fulmer’s strength coach. Pruitt's replacement hire will be the Vols 10 strength coach in 13 years.